


Skin and Ink

by orphan_account



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Multi, mauraders era, sort of an au but not really, wolfstar
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-31
Updated: 2017-08-01
Packaged: 2018-12-09 12:24:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11669067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: When a practice prank in a boring Charms class, fourth year, goes wrong, Sirius and Remus find that their skin has become connected. Whatever happens to one of them, happens to the other. Whatever one of them writes on their hand, the other can read. While their friends and teachers search for the counter spell, Sirius and Remus find out more about the other than they expected.(ONLY fluff. About 1,000 words per chapter. Updated rather randomly, sorry in advance!)





	1. Bored

Sometimes, Sirius Black could be a pain to work with. 

Sixth period. Charms class. A rather unintresting revision on substantive charms combined with an extremely bored Sirius Black made for trouble for one Remus Lupin.

It was one the only class in which they were paired together. Sometimes Sirius sat with James, usually at the end of a term when teachers were too weary to care, others, Sirius was sat with some poor student that professors decided would be a good influence.

Remus Lupin was more grateful for his friends than he would ever be able to say. Time and time again, they were there for him, lifebuoys when Remus was drowning in a crashing, infinite black sea.

But that didn’t mean there was times when they infuriated him to no end.

‘Sirius, you’re doing the completely wrong wand movement.’

‘I know that, Remus.’

‘Should I even bother asking why?’

‘Not if you’re going to have that attitude.’

Remus rolled his eyes and turned back to his workbook. He felt compelled to remind Sirius that this work was supposed to be done with a partner but decided against it when he saw Sirius flicking through a different textbook altogether, caught up in some next prank or something.

When the four friends were hanging out together, Remus would sometimes find himself wishing that he and Sirius would hang out together alone, like James and Sirius did. Because at times, very rare times that passed so quickly he found himself wondering if they had ever happened, a part of Sirius that was very deeply hidden came to the surface.

Underneath the handsome young boy that came from a rich, pureblood family and was brash and loud and rude - who didn’t like teachers and played pranks and acted like nothing he ever did or said mattered - there was a young boy that was clever and kind in his own way. 

Who loved and hated people so passionately he scared himself, who loved art and music, who was so terrified of his own family he had nightmares almost every night, who actually thought that everything mattered very, very much. 

And this was the boy Remus Lupin was finding himself more and more captivated with. 

And it just made him more frustrated that he was sitting right next to this boy, who was distracting himself by practicing charms years ahead of the rest of the year, knowing everything already being taught in this class while Remus studied day and night to catch up to his clever friends. 

There’s always Pete, Remus reminded himself as he looked over to the small, sandy haired halfblood boy, seated next to James and wearing an expression of extreme confusion as he stared at his wand.

A muffled spark made Remus jump and twist in his seat, to face the boy with a slightly surprised expression on his face. 

‘Sirius, just what the hell are you actually doing?’ He hissed.

‘Well - I’m not entirely sure. But it’s sure to be exciting.’ Sirius responded in a normal voice.  
Remus glanced over at Professor Flitwick, who didn’t seem like he would notice if Sirius had stripped naked and done a dance on his desk. 

He jumped again as Sirius grabbed his wrist and placed his own on top of it. ‘What are you doing?’ He asked again, keeping his voice low even though it didn’t seem to matter. ‘Should I be worried?’

Sirius’s eyes were lit up as he grabbed his wand with his other hand. ‘Just a bit, to keep things interesting.’ He said, and laughs at the expression on his friends face. ‘Don’t worry. I’m just trying something out, okay?’

There’s a pause and Remus realises Sirius is letting him say if he doesn’t want to. There’s a pang of gratefulness as he says, ‘Sure. As long as I don’t get turned into some horrible beast.’

Sirius’s mouth turns up at the sides. He taps his hand against the top of Remus’s wrist, which lies on top of Sirius’s own one, and mutters something Remus doesn’t quite catch.

After a few moments of nothing happening, Sirius leans forward and stares at their wrist. ‘Must have done something wrong, maybe the -’

His words cut off when a flash of light seems to come shooting up from their wrists. The last thing Remus sees is Sirius’s wide eyes and his free hand reaching for him before the blinding brightness turns to sudden, sobering darkness.

-

They wake up only a few moments later, curious classmates all turned around in their seats, staring. Professor Flitwick has run over as quickly as he can. Remus groans and sits up, trying to make sense of what’s happened.

‘Stay still, stay still!’ The short teacher snaps, and then pauses and turns to James and Peter, who’ve rushed over from their seats. Peters helping Remus sit up straight while James heads over to Sirius. ‘Peter, take Remus to Madame Pomfrey. James, help me with Sirius.’

‘Is he alright?’ Remus asks quickly, leaning forward, trying to see over James and Professor Flitwick. ‘Is he okay? Sirius?’

‘C’mon, Remus.’ Peter says quickly behind him. ‘We’ll meet him at the infirmary anyways.’ 

Remus pulls himself up, shakily. He’s recovering quickly and as he and Peter walk over to the door of the classroom, he wonders just what spell Sirius was trying to cast.

‘Mate, what were you trying to do?’ Peter says, his voice incredulous. ‘I just turned a page in my textbook and looked up and saw you two practically glowing. It was so bright it hurt my eyes! What spell was that?’

‘Dunno.’ Remus shrugs. There’s something different, something bothering him. His skin - something feels strange. Not itchy.. Just what did Sirius do to him?

Footsteps sound out behind them and there’s James and Professor Flitwick hurrying past, the latter directing a floating, still unconscious Sirius down the hall. They sped past and after sharing a look, Peter and Remus chase after them.

They arrive at the great blue doors of the infirmary. Madame Pomfrey rushes down at tuts at the sight. She gestures to a bed and while Professor Flitwick lowers the unconscious Sirius onto the bed, she gives a look to Peter and James that’s so often done, no words are required.

However, Remus, as a rare recipient of that look, ignores Peter and James as they shuffe out of the infirmary. He turns back to Madame Pomfrey. 

‘He’ll be okay, right? He’s going to be okay?’ His voice is unusually high but he’s too worried for that to matter right now.

‘If it’s him who cast it, he’ll be a bit worse of than you. He’ll survive, but,’ She tuts. ‘For me to properly heal him, I need to know what spell he was trying to cast.’

‘I don’t know! He didn’t tell me what it was, only that he was trying something out - I think he might have made it himself.’

‘Made it himself… the clever, idiotic boy.’ Pomfrey crosses her arms. ‘And you, Remus? What are you feeling? Come, sit here.’ She ushers him towards the nearest chair, despite his weak protests.

‘I’m fine! I’m absolutely fine. There’s nothing wrong at all.’ Remus says, still trying to ignore the strange sensation of his skin. ‘ I swear.’

‘Do you?’

‘Yes!’

She narrows her eyes but doesn’t argue. Instead she passes him over some chocolate and gives him the usual instructions to rest well and drink lots of water. As Remus watches her walk back down to her office, sitting cross -legged in the chair next to Sirius, he wonders why she didn’t tell him to leave too.

He sits next to Sirius and waits for his friend to wake up, wondering what the long haired, reckless boy has done to him now.


	2. The Spell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sirius and Remus talk about the new spell.

When Sirius wakes up, the last thing he remembers is his hand reaches towards a very surprised, glowing, Remus. Which is enough to make him worried that he’s gone mad. As he sits up and opens his eyes, he lets out a rather undignified croaking noise.

There’s a sudden movement to his right and there’s Remus himself, sitting in a very awkward position, now turned to him. The two boys stare at each other, wide eyed, before they both exclaim at once, ‘Are you alright?’

Remus laughs a little bit, and Sirius tries to as well, but his head is pounding and for some reason, his whole skin feels like it’s tingling. After opening and closing his hands, nothing seems to hurt. It just feels really, really strange.

Sirius turns to Remus. ‘So.. you were glowing?’ Which is not a sentence Sirius Black thought he’d be saying today.

‘So were you.’ Remus responds quickly. ‘You were trying to cast some spell - what was it?’

Sirius sat back for a moment, trying to think. What spell _was_ he trying to cast? His mind does a rewind of the lesson they were sat in. ‘Oh - OH! Right!’ He exclaims and leaps forward in the bed. THAT’S what the weird tingling is. He’s about to explain to Remus when he hears those all too familiar footsteps and groans inwardly.

Madame Pomfrey’s cold hand flies up to his forward as she starts questioning him immediately. ‘How are you doing, Black?’ She doesn’t notice when Sirius flinches. Sirius doesn’t notice that Remus does.

‘Fine, I’m fine. Just a headache. That’s all.’ She frowns and taps his forehead lightly, and immediately the pounding stops. Sirius wonders whether to tell her about the tingling on his skin, but if they spell worked, Remus must be feeling it too, and he clearly hasn’t said anything.  

Sirius sits up and swings his legs off the side. ‘May I go? There’s nothing wrong with me. Really, I’m just wasting the precious bed space.’

After some debate, Pomfrey lets the two of them go with more instructions to drink water and don’t strain yourselves and promises to return if anything feels strange. As they walk down the hallway to the dorms, slower than usual, Remus and Sirius talk.

 

-

 

‘Where is everybody? What time is it - was I knocked out long?’

‘A whole hour. Charms was the last lesson, so everyone’s in their dorms. Are they allowed to stay or should I let them know that Sirius Black wants everybody out and about?’

Sirius laughs and Remus smiles, blushing a bit. He looks away to hide it and asks, ‘You feel it too, right? The weird feeling on your skin?’

‘Yeah!’ Sirius says, alarmingly enthusiastically. ‘I was trying out this spell but I must’ve done something wrong.’

‘And?’ Remus groans when Sirius gives him a blank look. ‘The spell! What spell were you trying to cast?’

‘Oh! Well,’ Sirius is smirking now. ‘It was a pretty cool idea I had - not exactly a prank, but maybe in the future it could work as one. It was supposed to be some kind of spell to connect two papers so that instead of passing notes, we’d just scribble something on one paper and it’d appear on the other.’

‘That’s..’ Genius. It sounds like something a seventh year would create or even a graduated charms student. But here’s Sirius Black, bored in fourth year, doing it himself. ‘So what happened?’

‘I was trying to cast it on us so that when we wrote the magic would transfer onto the paper. But instead I think I should’ve cast it directly onto the papers, but the wand movement would have to change so that the magic would be contained..’

There’s silence for a couple of moments as Sirius became lost in elaborate wand movements and Remus tried to remember the passcode for the dorms. ‘Flibbertigibbet?’ He tried, surprised when it works. They step into the dorms and as James and Peter jump over to them, another thought occurs to Remus.

‘So the tingling - does that mean instead of the papers being connected.. We are?’ Sirius’s head snaps up and they stare at each other, wide eyed. Right then, Remus isn’t thinking about writing messages on each others hands. He’s thinking about the transformation he has to go through once a month and if Sirius will have to do that as well now.

‘We’ll figure it out. Don’t worry.’ But Sirius’s eyes are dark and as he turns to Peter and James to explain, Remus heads over to the chair nearest to the fire and flops down, staring into the flames.

 

-

 

Much, much later, when everybody's gone to bed, Sirius sits down on the floor next to Remus and holds out a quill. ‘Want to do the honours or shall I?’

Remus leans over and takes the quill. Their hands brush and Sirius’s flies back quickly, his dark hair covering his face. Is he.. Embarrassed? Remus forces himself not to think about it and instead, using his left hand to write on his write, scribbles, _Hi_

‘ _Wicked.’_ Sirius whispers, more to himself than anything as he watches the letters appear on his hand. ‘But, seriously - Hello? That’s what you decide to write? With every single beautiful word in the dictionary, you go with _Hi?_

‘Oh, shut up.’ Remus says, laughing. ‘You write something.’ He hands over the quill and Sirius takes it in his right, posing fake thoughtfully with the quill against his lip and his bright blue eyes facing upwards for a few moments before answering on their left hands.

The words _Everyone says hi .. and the girl next door… and the guy upstairs_ appears on his hand and Remus leans over to swat the quill away from Sirius. ‘Stop it! Is this David Bowie?’

‘Of course.’ Sirius grins. ‘Who else?’

‘Who else?’ Remus mimics, smiling too. ‘So is this what’s going to happen? Are song lyrics going to appear every time I look at my hands?’

‘Unless you want something else..’ Sirius raises his eyebrows and Remus feels himself blush _again_ , ‘Yes. Probably. Or, I dunno, until this wears off.’

‘Is it ever going to wear off? Is this forever now?’

Sirius doesn’t say anything for a few moments. ‘I don’t - I don’t think that’s a great idea.’

‘Because of Moony?’ Remus asks, and something flashes across Sirius’s face.

‘No! Well, yeah, maybe - but also, no, not only that.’

‘What else?’ He doesn’t respond, and Remus leans forward. ‘What else, Sirius?’

‘We’ll go see Pomfrey tomorrow about it, okay?’ Sirius says, standing up and offering a hand to Remus as well. There’s something in his tone and his eyes look a bit shifty. Sirius always has, always will be _terrible_ at keeping secrets from his friends. Remus knows better than to push it but as he takes his hand and they walk together up the stairs to their beds, the possibilities fly through his head.

 

Is it fighting? Does Sirius get in some brawls he doesn’t want his friends to know about? It could explain the strange bruises that sometimes appear - or is it a girl? Dread fills Remus as he lays awake in bed. A girl. Could Sirius be dating a girl? He had a fling or two last year but that wasn’t really dating.

Remus closes his eyes and tries to get the image of Sirius kissing some girl out of his head, jealousy running through him.  I’m just jealous that he got a girlfriend before us all. Remus chants inside his head. I’m not jealous of the girl. I’m just jealous he got a girlfriend before us.

Because this connection between the two of them really isn’t going to help with the massive crush Remus has on Sirius.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy crap, I honestly only expected four or maybe if I was lucky, five people to read this and the fact that it already has 150 hits is amazing. I'm still getting used to AO3 so if I make some mistakes with formatting or whatever don't be afraid to call me out on it!
> 
>  Also - the song 'Everybody Says Hi' came out literal decades AFTER Remus and Sirius would've been in Hogwarts but it just suits Sirius so well! I couldn't resist. (I also might've been too lazy to search for another song, so there's that too)
> 
> Thanks for reading, everybody!
> 
> -how do you even name chapters oh my god-

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there! Thanks for choosing this fic out of all of them to check out and read - it means a lot!
> 
> So - this is going to be a small fic, probably only going to be about ten or eleven chapters. It's mostly to gather up some people / fans who'd be willing to follow a much longer (hopefully much better) Mauraders Tale with wolfstar and jily. 
> 
> Please comment - I'd love to hear any feedback/ideas!  
> -Steph


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